An 80-year-old man has been arrested in the cold case killings of two 19-year-old women who were slain in 1973 while on vacation in Virginia, officials said.
Ernest Broadnax was arrested Monday in New York City and charged with two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola, said Macie Allen, a spokeswoman for the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.
Broadnax was also charged with one count of rape, said Allen.
Seethaler and Pietropola, both from the Pittsburgh area, were on vacation in Virginia Beach when they were “found brutally murdered” at a motel cottage on June 30, 1973, according to Virginia Beach police. Allen would not say how the teenagers were killed.
The case went cold for decades, until the fall of 2018, when cold case investigators “began aggressively researching a strong lead they had received,” according to Virginia Beach police.
(Virginia Beach Police Department) Janice Pietropola and Lynn Seethaler are pictured in images released by the Virginia Beach Police Department. The two 19-year-old women were slain in 1973 while on vacation in Virginia.
Allen did not disclose how Broadnax was identified as a suspect and would not provide any of the alleged evidence against him, citing the pending case.
Broadnax is expected to be extradited to Virginia but an extradition date was not immediately known, said Allen.
He is next due in Queens Criminal Court on April 22. His attorney from the Legal Aid Society did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
ABC News’ Ben Stein contributed to this report.
